Day 8

Today was our first full day on Kaua’i.

I woke up around 6:25 when the light of dawn really began to effect the inside of the weather port. It felt like what I imagine living inside a light bulb must feel like, the domed ceiling over my head lit up a surprisingly bright orange.

After breakfast we all piled into vans to take a tour of the National Botanical Gardens. The gardens were beautiful. During the tour we were bombarded with neat facts about the conservation efforts being made there. At one point our tour guide, Dr. Burney, commented that our field of view was over the greatest concentration of endangered species in the USA.

After touring the NTBG we moved to the cave to break for lunch and tour the inside of the sinkhole. However, after lunch, the plan for the day changed (plans can be such ephemeral things) and we instead observed the kite and UAV that are being flown by the university of Hawai’i team.

Conditions were just windy enough to make flying the kite a challenge and the team decided to not do a full flight after having tried a dry run (no gear attached to the kite). The UAV on the other hand was able to fly through the wind.

We got a good demonstration of the UAV at the fields of an abandoned sugar cane plant. Apparently, it was the first such plant opened in the islands and heralded the start of the plantation era. It was closed in the 90’s and the fields lay fallow until just recently opened to test GMO seed corn (probably not a good change).

Pre contact this area was a major agricultural zone for the natives and previous aerial imagery has suggested the outlines of prehistoric field boundaries. We will see after processing today’s imagery if those outlines are still visible.

A quick dinner in the evening and I turned in, tomorrow should be another good field day.